Although the UH volleyball team closed the regular season with a four-game win streak, head coach Bill Walton said the Cougars are approaching the Conference USA Championships as a new beginning.
"Nothing has happened to this point of the season," Walton said. "This is like season two – everybody is 0-0 starting this weekend."
Senior outside hitter Justine Farmer heads into C-USA Championships as the conference leader in kills (430 this season) and kills per set (3.98), but her focus is on the team earning its first conference championship since 1997.
"This is my last couple games, and if we lose we’re out, and I don’t want to lose," Farmer said.
The Cougars’ strong regular-season finish, including a five-set win against No. 2 Alabama-Birmingham and a sweep of Rice, helped the Cougars earn a No. 4 seed and gain its seventh first-round bye in the tournament, from Nov. 20-23 in Memphis, Tenn.
Houston (18-11, 10-6 C-USA) will play the winner of the game between No. 5 Tulsa (21-10, 8-8 C-USA) and No.12 East Carolina (13-18, 3-13 C-USA) at 2 p.m. Friday at Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
The Cougars won both their contests against Tulsa this season and swept ECU on Oct. 10, but if UH advances to the semifinals, it will likely face No. 1 Tulane.
In addition to the Cougars, Tulane, UAB and Rice received first-round tournament byes. The Green Wave (24-5, 15-1 C-USA) was crowned C-USA regular season champion with a 3-0 sweep of Texas-El Paso on the road on Nov.14.
Tulane won its last 13 matches of the season, including 10 clean sweeps, and clinched both games against the Cougars this season with a 3-0 victory on Sept. 26 and 3-2 win on Oct. 26.
Walton said the Cougars will need to look beyond the obvious team leaders and use depth to defeat their opponents.
"I think that there will be somebody on the team that we don’t always write about who will have to come in and make a serious contribution," Walton said.
In Houston’s last game against Rice on Nov. 13, Farmer led the Cougars with 15 kills and has a conference-high 471 points this season, but Farmer is not discounting the importance of her teammates.
"I think everyone needs to step up," Farmer said.
Senior setter Kelsey King is ranked fourth in the conference with an average of 10.67 assists a set and has 1,174 on the season. Sophomore defensive specialist Amanda Carson is third in C-USA with a 0.36 service ace per game average and twelfth in digs per set with an average of 3.22, and sophomore middle blocker Lucy Charuk is third in C-USA 140 blocks on the season.
A tournament win is the only way for Houston to make the NCAA tournament as an automatic bid from C-USA.
"It’s going to be a tough tournament no matter what," Farmer said.
C-USA Championships begin Thursday and end Sunday with the championship match, which will be broadcast on CBS College Sports, at 2 p.m.
